Working to open exclusive stores by December: Realme CEO

"We will be having our exclusive stores. We are already in works for that. Currently, we are only in multi-brand stores," says Madhav Sheth, CEO Realme.

ET Bureau|

Aug 20, 2019, 05.16 PM IST

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Current IDC numbers show a great growth for you, but how do you plan to sustain or maintain this sort of growth the future?Madhav Sheth, CEO Realme: Our core strategy always been our product. We will continuously strive to bring more and more innovation into our product portfolio. Every single price segment, that is what will continue to do. I think the users in India are much smarter and experienced now. They know the realistic approach of the brand. I think hence, this only brand who was accepted in India so easily, so fast- in India, we have more than 10 million users just less than 14 months. So, this, Indians are open for innovations. We just have a true approach on the products, and we have given them what they want. And we will continue doing that.

There were reports that you will move on from ColorOS and come out with your own OS. Any word on that?Realme skin is already there. But it's too early to comment on it, it is in very early stages. We have already made ColorOS much better according to what the user expectation is. And we are trying to make it much closer to the stock Android experience, which is what the people are always looking for. More and more useful features, which our users want it for making the day to day life much more easier and convenient. More and more a capability from the chipset, which we try to optimise through software to bring it to the user. So as of now, it's in the early stages, it's too early to say anything.

Oppo is your parent company. You do share a lot of devices in the same price segment. Are you trying to directly compete with them, or trying to create your own niche within this segment?Our competition is not with Oppo as such, because I think our competition is with every single brand in that particular price segment. We have a different go-to market strategy for our users, which is more of the techie-side. This is the way we try and address our users through the community. And that is what we want to continue doing. It's not about the competition with one of the brands, where any brand in this similar price segment would be considered competition.

Your model till now has been to undercut the market with cheaper prices. Realme is directly competing with Xiaomi for the most part. So how do you plan to move forward? Do you still plan on cutting into their base?I think in India the user base is more than 150 million. Because people like to compare us with the number one brand or whatever the brand, which you're talking about- as I go back to my previous answer, basically, my competition is with every single brand in this particular price segment. We have a dream vision- "realme for every Indian." It's not a marketing concept. Basically, we want every Indian to experience our phone before they buy any other device. If they think, even after experiencing our phones, at a similar present with the other devices better than this is a choice what they want to do. But this is what we want - every single user to compare our devices before they look for any other devices. So it's not about competition with the number one brand, as I said, it's a competition with the entire segment in this particular price point.

You talked about brick and mortar stores, that you have reached more than 60 cities. Does Realme have any plans on opening exclusive stores? Any further plans to increase the offline presence?We will be having our exclusive stores. We are already in works for that. Currently, we are only in multi-brand stores. Before December you can expect them to open up.

And lastly, we've observed that there has been a bit of an economic slowdown. Do you think that might affect you moving forward?The mobile industry is growing at a pace of around 3% to 5%. But for realme, we have a good growth opportunity. We have grown more than 600 to 800%, quarter-on-quarter, and I think we'll still be growing. Maybe the industry does not grow. But there's always a shift from the older devices to the newer devices. And that will always happen and people are getting more and more techie and more and more connected to the technology in the different ways. And I don't see any challenge for realme, especially in that space. I think will still continue to grow strongly.